In a dramatic, impromptu news conference Thursday morning, she accused the St. Anthony, Minnesota, police of murdering Castile right before her eyes.

"They took his life for no reason," Reynolds told a small crowd of supporters, media, and onlookers who had gathered around her on the grounds of the Minnesota Governor's Residence in St. Paul. "He took his last breath in front of us."

Police pulled Castile and Reynolds over in a traffic stop Wednesday evening in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, near Minneapolis.

Reynolds said she and Castile were returning from the grocery store when police stopped them.

"The police officer stopped us for a busted taillight that wasn't busted," she said, adding they were calmly following the officer's instructions. "We had our hands in the air."

Castile told the officer he had a permit to carry a weapon, according to Reynolds' account. The officer asked for Castile's license and registration and "as he was reaching for his ID in his back pocket" shot him multiple times, she said.

She then pulled out her phone and started the live stream video, viewed more than 3 million times on Facebook.

"I wanted it to go viral so the people could see" what happened, she said, explaining why she did that during such a stressful time. "I wanted everybody in the world to see what the police do."

In the video, Reynolds speaks and turns her camera to Castile, who's wearing a blood-covered white shirt. A police officer is visible out the window of the car, with his gun drawn. The footage was streamed on her Facebook account under the name Lavish Reynolds.